(no subject)
The weekend, it happened. Hoo boy. Friday night was opening...according to company management. But the director was calling it a preview (normally no one pays on a preview night, it's like a sneak peak or a final dress rehearsal but it's not an official performance and not open to anyone off the street who buys a ticket). And somewhere in the midst of all of that it became a tech rehearsal. Which was deeply unsatisfying to me. There wasn't anything to do about it really, some of the tech just wasn't done in time. The lighting was still getting set up to five minutes before curtain when the Artistic Director ordered it to a halt. Part of why that's a massive clusterfuck is the stage manager (ME) then has no time to get the cues in the book (the copy of the script with all the tech cues, prop placement notes and blocking). Winging it through 200-odd lighting cues with some six different interfaces is flat out ridiculous. I didn't know what I was doing except that I was making mistake after mistake but there was shit all I could do about it. I don't know how to program lights, I don't know most terms for wiring lights or the different kinds of lights so I couldn't correct on the fly... Argh.
We shut down around 11 and I stayed until about 1am adding cues into the book and taking notes when things looked weird. There were (are) several lighting choices that took me by surprise and I know the actors may have responded to them differently had they known what to expect.
Saturday I dragged my sorry butt out of bed and headed to richardabecker's Steampunk LARP (more later) and was shocked by the traffic. other people were much more shocked and delayed by it. What're ya gonna do? I also fell down at the game and the graceless spill ever. It was so awful it really pissed me off. My knee is fucked up because of it and every ache it gives just annoys me all the more. I can tell you - my character most certainly would NEVER fall over while under her own power. Best, well worst, of all was running straightaway to the theatre and crawling around on my hands and knees in the tech booth and trying to make sure everything was perfect for Opening Night 2.0. Maybe the pain and anger focused me. I don't know. But I know I ran it right even though I couldn't check before the run. The director and her lighting assistant had been in the theatre in the morning cleaning up the programming and simplifying the cues for me. Then the assistant and I sat down with the lighting script and went through all of the cues. I would have preferred a dry tech to a paper tech by several orders of magnitude but we couldn't do anything in the theatre, thanks to the Artistic Director holding a seminar.
Regardless, Saturday night was MUCH better. I felt just stupidly good walking out of there even if the director was just very "well, it was better."
Sunday was bloody hard. The body did NOT want to get out of bed. The brain just wanted to chase rainbows and bits of fuzz. The worst was actually realizing I was nodding off in the tech booth. There's precious little time in the play when I can just sit and do nothing. A handful of minutes here and there but... I dove for the light & sound boards too many times to feel good about Sunday night. It felt off. But in actuality the Director was in a good mood and complimented me very well and remarked how I've pulled off a monumental task. I'll bloody well say, this show is a bitch and a half.
But it was a good night, all things considered. I got flowers, chocolate and a gas card with a thank you card from the cast. They're so sweet! The compliments have been flowing and really wonderful to hear. Because I really have been beaten up trying to keep up with this damn play and it's good that people have noticed that a. I have a lot on my plate and I'm handling and b. that I'm taking it on as it comes without flinching (too much). And so the show is no longer buggy. I said a while ago opening night is like version 1.0 and the next night or two are when we find the necessary patches for succeed versions that will make the show work. I think we're there (as much as we can be) and i can't wait until Friday when we'll fully own this show!
Afterward made it home as well as I could and poked around online until I felt on an even keel. Then i crashed for a good 12 hours.
As noted there was also a Steampunk LARP, specifically Lady Eleanor's Symposium. I had been looking forward to this game since Richard first started muttering about it more than a year ago. I had two, maybe three characters that were starting to formulate late last fall when the theatre came acallin'. The game was always set for the 20th and the show was already set to open this weekend. There was no way I could do both. So with a great deal of sadness I told Richard I couldn't attend the game. But then the first of many mishaps struck Richard and he couldn't get the site on the evening of the 20th. But his mishap worked in my favor because he decided to go earlier in the day when I could attend (if only for an hour). It really and truly sucks that this game was so difficult for him to put on. It further sucked that all I could do was sit back here on the sidelines and watch people be difficult, hear about his tech troubles, watch some musical chairs among players and finally hear about how some folk took it upon themselves to express their distaste for the very long established style Richard uses for hosting games. Not to mention I had a front row seat to all the suck that showed up on game day, from a last minute (expensive) printing emergency, to the tardiness of people vital to the game (traffic was evidently a nightmare throughout LA, really not something you anticipate midday on Saturday). There wasn't anything I could do to fix any of it and there wasn't any way to comfort poor Richard who was bailing water/putting out fires/creating/improvising/generally conjuring both a rabbit and a hat on the spot through a haze of stress and frustration.
I'm really glad to hear the people did end up having fun, for the most part. I think things generally started off stressful for everyone and once that eased off they found they could have some fun, realized that Elizabeth is a Tea Goddess, and rolled along with steampunky good times. Still, very sad to hear that richardabecker has more or less decided to hang up his LARP host hat. I've never known a finer one, so it's really a loss.
As for myself, I played swashbuckler Abigail Strangeways (pronounced "STRANG-wiss"), air pirate and aviatrix extraordinaire. Richard developed the character and I ran with it. Damn it was fun. Part of the fun was knowing that she was supposed to die an hour into the game so I could leave. Go all out, leave nothing for the return. I'm sure Abigail would have done nothing different. I want to write up the whole thing as a fiction-y piece. When it's finished and Richard approves I may post it here.
And finally a wishlist. Not for anyone but me, really. Just jotting down the list of crap I'd love to get if I had a ton of money lying around, not doing anything. I mean best would be a true income with which I could get my own apartment, pay all my bills and buy any food and/or wine I want. But that's clearly head-in-the-clouds stuff. I'm trying to keep my feet on the ground here...
-->flash drive: one or may be two gig drives because I currently have NO backup to my POS laptop.
-->Laptop accessories: a decent pair of headphones for the laptop & Euterpe since I managed somehow to destroy two in one week, a power cord that doesn't flip out when I connect it to a starving laptop, and oh what the hell... hire a techy of some kind to look at the laptop and figure out why it's so clunky and picky about connecting to wifi signals. It may come down to physical abuse though. And the best fix may be a new computer. Bah, anyway...
-->hold a wine tasting and/or dinner. I held a wine tasting of my own almost five years ago and it was a lot of fun. I wish I could buy a good range of wines I'd like to showcase and foods to pair with it, borrow someone's dining room and invite people over to partake. I want to do it again, though right now I'd need to solicit an entrance fee. Alternatively, I just miss fixing dinner for people. *sigh* I miss making people feel at home.
-->A bottle of gosh darned good whisky that I can come home to after hard rehearsals or shows.
-->A gym membership. Hmph, every other Twitter/facebook/LJ update seems to be how someone I know is losing weight like crazy. The little I can do for myself in the house isn't doing anything.
-->another tattoo. This one is...complicated because I wanted certain conditions before my next tattoo. But I have to adapt myself to the times, not the other way around. Orchestrating conditions would likely be harder to do than tripping over the money for a new tattoo.
-->clothing. Yoy. Where to start. One of everything? and several of a few ? My professional wardrobe is super thin. My gothy/dressy/femme is currently disappointing me. Lots of clothes are just plain wearing out. This is where I feel my poverty. Several clothes are starting to turn to rags. I may start to spend my days lounging in nice clothing because several jeans and t-shirts are shreded beyond repair.
-->a bicycle. Maybe a fancy mountain thing with gears and such. Or maybe not. I haven't owned a bike since high school. But I may enjoy working out more (short of a gym membership) if I can get scenic tours in rather than pounding the concrete of this neighborhood. Plus I can toss it into the truck and take off for other places and ride it around.
-->a decent stereo. I haven't touched my old one in nearly two years because the CD player started being problematic and tape deck never worked quite right. The speakers may be worth rescuing though. The boombox I have is nearly 20 years old and finicky. I want something with a nice sound system to listen to music. Right now I can only listen a computer (or Euterpe) on a pair of earbuds (borrowed from my mom) and the sound is...passable. But not great in fidelity. Or else it's listening in the truck which is fine but I have found the bass tops out and also I need to be driving somewhere.
-->Firefly: the fanciest/collectoriest/director's cuttiest version. Or at least the complete thing. So then I don't have to be a Hulu's mercy whenever i'm feeling that certain melancholy...
We shut down around 11 and I stayed until about 1am adding cues into the book and taking notes when things looked weird. There were (are) several lighting choices that took me by surprise and I know the actors may have responded to them differently had they known what to expect.
Saturday I dragged my sorry butt out of bed and headed to richardabecker's Steampunk LARP (more later) and was shocked by the traffic. other people were much more shocked and delayed by it. What're ya gonna do? I also fell down at the game and the graceless spill ever. It was so awful it really pissed me off. My knee is fucked up because of it and every ache it gives just annoys me all the more. I can tell you - my character most certainly would NEVER fall over while under her own power. Best, well worst, of all was running straightaway to the theatre and crawling around on my hands and knees in the tech booth and trying to make sure everything was perfect for Opening Night 2.0. Maybe the pain and anger focused me. I don't know. But I know I ran it right even though I couldn't check before the run. The director and her lighting assistant had been in the theatre in the morning cleaning up the programming and simplifying the cues for me. Then the assistant and I sat down with the lighting script and went through all of the cues. I would have preferred a dry tech to a paper tech by several orders of magnitude but we couldn't do anything in the theatre, thanks to the Artistic Director holding a seminar.
Regardless, Saturday night was MUCH better. I felt just stupidly good walking out of there even if the director was just very "well, it was better."
Sunday was bloody hard. The body did NOT want to get out of bed. The brain just wanted to chase rainbows and bits of fuzz. The worst was actually realizing I was nodding off in the tech booth. There's precious little time in the play when I can just sit and do nothing. A handful of minutes here and there but... I dove for the light & sound boards too many times to feel good about Sunday night. It felt off. But in actuality the Director was in a good mood and complimented me very well and remarked how I've pulled off a monumental task. I'll bloody well say, this show is a bitch and a half.
But it was a good night, all things considered. I got flowers, chocolate and a gas card with a thank you card from the cast. They're so sweet! The compliments have been flowing and really wonderful to hear. Because I really have been beaten up trying to keep up with this damn play and it's good that people have noticed that a. I have a lot on my plate and I'm handling and b. that I'm taking it on as it comes without flinching (too much). And so the show is no longer buggy. I said a while ago opening night is like version 1.0 and the next night or two are when we find the necessary patches for succeed versions that will make the show work. I think we're there (as much as we can be) and i can't wait until Friday when we'll fully own this show!
Afterward made it home as well as I could and poked around online until I felt on an even keel. Then i crashed for a good 12 hours.
As noted there was also a Steampunk LARP, specifically Lady Eleanor's Symposium. I had been looking forward to this game since Richard first started muttering about it more than a year ago. I had two, maybe three characters that were starting to formulate late last fall when the theatre came acallin'. The game was always set for the 20th and the show was already set to open this weekend. There was no way I could do both. So with a great deal of sadness I told Richard I couldn't attend the game. But then the first of many mishaps struck Richard and he couldn't get the site on the evening of the 20th. But his mishap worked in my favor because he decided to go earlier in the day when I could attend (if only for an hour). It really and truly sucks that this game was so difficult for him to put on. It further sucked that all I could do was sit back here on the sidelines and watch people be difficult, hear about his tech troubles, watch some musical chairs among players and finally hear about how some folk took it upon themselves to express their distaste for the very long established style Richard uses for hosting games. Not to mention I had a front row seat to all the suck that showed up on game day, from a last minute (expensive) printing emergency, to the tardiness of people vital to the game (traffic was evidently a nightmare throughout LA, really not something you anticipate midday on Saturday). There wasn't anything I could do to fix any of it and there wasn't any way to comfort poor Richard who was bailing water/putting out fires/creating/improvising/generally conjuring both a rabbit and a hat on the spot through a haze of stress and frustration.
I'm really glad to hear the people did end up having fun, for the most part. I think things generally started off stressful for everyone and once that eased off they found they could have some fun, realized that Elizabeth is a Tea Goddess, and rolled along with steampunky good times. Still, very sad to hear that richardabecker has more or less decided to hang up his LARP host hat. I've never known a finer one, so it's really a loss.
As for myself, I played swashbuckler Abigail Strangeways (pronounced "STRANG-wiss"), air pirate and aviatrix extraordinaire. Richard developed the character and I ran with it. Damn it was fun. Part of the fun was knowing that she was supposed to die an hour into the game so I could leave. Go all out, leave nothing for the return. I'm sure Abigail would have done nothing different. I want to write up the whole thing as a fiction-y piece. When it's finished and Richard approves I may post it here.
And finally a wishlist. Not for anyone but me, really. Just jotting down the list of crap I'd love to get if I had a ton of money lying around, not doing anything. I mean best would be a true income with which I could get my own apartment, pay all my bills and buy any food and/or wine I want. But that's clearly head-in-the-clouds stuff. I'm trying to keep my feet on the ground here...
-->flash drive: one or may be two gig drives because I currently have NO backup to my POS laptop.
-->Laptop accessories: a decent pair of headphones for the laptop & Euterpe since I managed somehow to destroy two in one week, a power cord that doesn't flip out when I connect it to a starving laptop, and oh what the hell... hire a techy of some kind to look at the laptop and figure out why it's so clunky and picky about connecting to wifi signals. It may come down to physical abuse though. And the best fix may be a new computer. Bah, anyway...
-->hold a wine tasting and/or dinner. I held a wine tasting of my own almost five years ago and it was a lot of fun. I wish I could buy a good range of wines I'd like to showcase and foods to pair with it, borrow someone's dining room and invite people over to partake. I want to do it again, though right now I'd need to solicit an entrance fee. Alternatively, I just miss fixing dinner for people. *sigh* I miss making people feel at home.
-->A bottle of gosh darned good whisky that I can come home to after hard rehearsals or shows.
-->A gym membership. Hmph, every other Twitter/facebook/LJ update seems to be how someone I know is losing weight like crazy. The little I can do for myself in the house isn't doing anything.
-->another tattoo. This one is...complicated because I wanted certain conditions before my next tattoo. But I have to adapt myself to the times, not the other way around. Orchestrating conditions would likely be harder to do than tripping over the money for a new tattoo.
-->clothing. Yoy. Where to start. One of everything? and several of a few ? My professional wardrobe is super thin. My gothy/dressy/femme is currently disappointing me. Lots of clothes are just plain wearing out. This is where I feel my poverty. Several clothes are starting to turn to rags. I may start to spend my days lounging in nice clothing because several jeans and t-shirts are shreded beyond repair.
-->a bicycle. Maybe a fancy mountain thing with gears and such. Or maybe not. I haven't owned a bike since high school. But I may enjoy working out more (short of a gym membership) if I can get scenic tours in rather than pounding the concrete of this neighborhood. Plus I can toss it into the truck and take off for other places and ride it around.
-->a decent stereo. I haven't touched my old one in nearly two years because the CD player started being problematic and tape deck never worked quite right. The speakers may be worth rescuing though. The boombox I have is nearly 20 years old and finicky. I want something with a nice sound system to listen to music. Right now I can only listen a computer (or Euterpe) on a pair of earbuds (borrowed from my mom) and the sound is...passable. But not great in fidelity. Or else it's listening in the truck which is fine but I have found the bass tops out and also I need to be driving somewhere.
-->Firefly: the fanciest/collectoriest/director's cuttiest version. Or at least the complete thing. So then I don't have to be a Hulu's mercy whenever i'm feeling that certain melancholy...